Several Riven continued their attack, venturing into the water only to discover that ancient siren blood was as toxic to evil as gargoyle blood.
They screamed as they died. Gregory nodded to the siren over the distance, and she returned the gesture in kind, then bared her teeth at the next wave of demons descending upon the hamadryad.
Gregory turned his magic upon the ones coming closest to the tree. Shadows and moonlight hunted them while he dealt with the ones near his person in the more mundane manner of tooth and claw.
The battle raged on for many more minutes. Lillian called encouragement the whole time until suddenly there were no more enemies within striking distance.
There were still a few other battles raging on, but even those would shortly be won.
Lillian’s mother and father had moved off to aid Gran and Shadowlight. Other Clan and Coven members were finishing off the few Riven still within the glade.
Gregory loped over to inspect Lillian’s hamadryad. The tree seemed whole and unharmed, and there was no taint of Riven essence upon her. They’d managed to prevent that at least.
Lillian dismounted for a better look.
A black shadow circled around from behind the tree, and Gregory nodded to the pooka. The unicorn joined him a moment later, and they took up positions on either side of the tree, acting as sentries. He was about to thank them for their loyalty when Lillian whispered his name and then tapped him on the shoulder. He followed where she pointed, and he soon spotted Tethys where she lay in the stream, half up on the bank.
“Guard the tree,” he ordered the two equines.
They bobbed their heads in unison.
With Lillian a step behind, he approached with caution, but none of the Riven bodies piled up three deep along the stream banks showed any signs of movement.
Tethys lay almost as unmoving as her conquered enemies, only the slow flutter of her gills and the slight rise and fall of her chest showed she still lived. No part of her body was untouched, and blood still welled sluggishly from a hundred wounds. She might have survived all that, but her own trident had been broken, and both parts speared her body. The lower shaft had been driven through her chest, and it pinned her to the bank. The three-pronged crown was buried in her abdomen.
It looked like it had been plunged in several times before the hand that had wielded it had given out, or more likely, had been killed by Tethys’s dying will.
“Tethys, can you hear me?” he asked directly into her mind, hoping a spark of her fierce nature and pride were still there.
“Yes, Avatar.” She answered in kind, though her essence was weak and pain filled. “But even you can’t save me. Grant me a boon and give me a merciful ending.”
“It is as you said. I can’t save you. But I can thank you for protecting Lillian’s hamadryad.”
“It was the least I could do after what my actions almost allowed. The Riven would have violated this Realm far more quickly and far more thoroughly than the humans ever could.”
“I am glad you saw that before the end.” Gregory pulled her broken trident from her abdomen and then wrapped both hands around the broken shaft, just above where it speared through her chest. “But there is one more thing you can do for me, one last task only you can perform.”
He yanked the shaft free, and Tethys issued a weak, bloody gurgle, but her eyes blinked open as he lifted her into his arms. “I can send you back to the Magic Realm, in spirit at least. Before you pass on into the next life, I would ask you to carry a message to the Lord of the Underworld for me. Tell him all you know and have seen here. As a reward, he might gift you with more time to seek vengeance for what the Riven have done, but I cannot promise you that.”
“Send me then, and I will tell Death everything before I venture forth into the next life. It matters not if he gives me more time. I do not deserve or crave it, but if it is granted, I promise to spend it well.”
Gregory nodded at the words. There was no deception in her, she meant what she said.
He bowed his muzzle to her forehead and placed a kiss there. “Go, regain your honor.”
He lowered her body to the ground at the base of the hamadryad, but her spirit was already on its way, speeding toward the Magic Realm and Lord Death.
Gregory could not say how the Lord of the Underworld would react to the news of everything that had happened here tonight, but at least Tethys could give him some valuable details, especially about the Riven army amassing in his twin’s territory.
And Death would be clever enough to see Gregory had just given him a way to dispatch that army without violating the duality curse that held the Lady of Battles imprisoned.
Gregory smiled harshly as Tethys’ body turned to sea foam and seeped into the ground under the hamadryad. Lillian made a surprised exclamation. He merely tucked her against his side to reassure her.
“What was all that about?”
He waited until Lillian’s parents, brother, and grandmother joined them under the hamadryad before explaining.
Vivian’s expression hinted that she already knew the answer, and her smile grew bigger, turning into what Lillian had always called her grandmother’s shit-eating grin—which was a repulsive human adage, but that smile always drew an answering one from him.
“What I wouldn’t give to be there to see the outcome of that,” Gran said with a chuckle.
Lillian’s parents merely watched Gran with puzzled looks.
“Come,” Gran said in a tone that was all business once again. “We need to see to the wounded, dispose of the Riven’s remains, get cleaned up, and then sit down for proper introductions.” She eyed Shadowlight with open interest. “If I’m not mistaken, I believe I just inherited another grandchild. The more the merrier, I always say.”
Shadowlight practically vibrated with happiness. He was as bruised, battered, and bitten up as the rest of them, but he galloped over to Gran and bumped his muzzle under her hand. With a chuckle, she obliged. But she multitasked even then, giving Lillian’s biological parents a once-over that was civil, though a touch cool. “We’ll divide into groups and triage the scene. Lillian, you can take Shadowlight and introduce him to Jason. You’ll be aiding him in cleansing the tainted blood.” Gran turned her attention to her next set of victims. “Gregory, I would like you and...” She glanced at Lillian’s father with a raised brow.
“Stalks the Darkness,” he supplied, “though my daughter finds Darkness an easier mouthful.”
Gran smiled. “Darkness, I would like you and Gregory to lead another group in disposing of the Riven corpses and dispatching any stragglers. When you find allies, please report them to Whitethorn and Greenborrow. They will oversee bringing the wounded to me. If Lillian’s mother is willing to help?”
River nodded. “I have done many healings during my long life.”
“Good. We’ll need as many able bodies in the healing tent as soon as possible.”
Lillian, who had been silent until then, perked up. “You taught me basic first aid. I could help.”
“You could indeed. But only after several rounds of full biohazard decontamination protocol. You and Gregory both smell like you’ve been wallowing in a cesspool for the better part of the night.” She made a vague, full-body gesture at Lillian. “At present, you’d kill more souls than you would save.”
Lillian blushed but nodded in agreement. “We ran afoul of a bog. It was richer than most.”
“To put it mildly,” Gregory rumbled, unable to keep quiet on the topic.
“Dawn isn’t far off,” Gran said and then paused as a newcomer approached. A tall sidhe warrior, her bow still at the ready and dressed in full battle armor, came up to them and bowed graceful to Gregory and Lillian before she pulled Gran aside for a moment. Gran conversed with the fae for some time, and then met Gregory’s eyes. “It seems we have a more pressing deadline than just the rising sun. The human military is gathering itself. Some of their numbers must have made it back to base and notified th
eir superiors.”
Lillian muttered an expletive, and for once Gregory was inclined to agree and added a few of his own.
Gran just sighed at their language and took command. “Change of plans. The siren may have provided us our scapegoat when she sent all the townsfolk north. Lillian, you’re still on cleanup detail with the gargoyles. You’ll just have to do it without your brother. I need him to lead the Coven members that are uninjured and gather any Clan that can pass for human and take everyone to join the townsfolk as quickly as possible. Once there, they can pretend to blat in fear and confusion with the townsfolk, all the while using persuasion magic to swing the blame firmly on some super-secret government experiment gone wrong. The human authorities can spin it any way they want. I don’t care, as long as we aren’t exposed to the general public.”
“While that’s the craziest plan I’ve ever heard, people will be more willing to believe that than the truth about magic and demons.” Lillian gave her head a little shake, her expression darkening as another emotion slid across her face. “The average person might believe that tall tale, but the military personnel in the woods tonight know otherwise.”
“Exactly.” Gran motioned another fae to her side, this one a dire wolf already shifted to human form. “We need to get this done because we know the human authorities will be all over us, since the masquerade was our idea and it coincided with the Riven’s attack. We need to make it look no more or less strange here than what’s happening in the rest of the town with the townsfolk waking up from the siren’s enchantment.”
Nodding her head sharply, Lillian added, “So no bodies, body parts, blood, or gore. But lots of leftovers from a big shindig suddenly abandoned when the partygoers wandered off after getting exposed to a—what, a hallucinogenic gas or something along those lines? Got it.”
“That’s my girl,” Gran said. “I’ll ask any other fae not helping with the wounded or the cleanup to create a diversion in the forest and give the soldiers something more interesting to chase. A three-pronged diversion should work. Besides, we’ve flooded enough magic into the land tonight to confound any tech they will have with them. Do what you can and then meet back here in an hour and a half.”
Gregory gave himself a shake and stretched muscles stiffening in the cool night air.
“All right, boys,” Lillian said with a wave encompassing him and the two other gargoyles. “You heard Gran, let’s do this in record time because I want to shower, eat, and then dream about sleeping for a week.”
Gregory rumbled his agreement, and they set off, starting at Lillian’s hamadryad and working their way out from there. He quickly showed Lillian how Elemental fire summoned from the Magic Realm served their needs much more efficiently than gasoline and a match.
Chapter 34
THE CLEANUP TOOK LESS time than Lillian had estimated, but then again, with three gargoyles ridding the land of taint and her own dryad magic repairing the damaged grasses and other landscaping around the spa, maybe it shouldn’t have surprised her. In the days to come, there would be more work far out in the forest, such as adding layers of protection to the dwellings of the other fae, where wounded were even now being transported.
When they’d finished their task, they had gone back to meet up with Gran. Once there, she’d assigned Darkness and Shadowlight new jobs. Which, Lillian had noted with amusement, they accepted without as much as a flick of a questioning ear. After that, Gran had looked Lillian over from head to toe. Gregory got the same treatment, and then they were ordered to “go find a shower in all haste before someone expires from the smell alone.”
Hence, Lillian now made her way back to the house with little guilt about leaving others to contend with the military threat. Gregory seemed unconcerned as well—but that might just have been exhaustion. He padded along beside her, silent and physically ‘drooping’ with his ears at half-mast, wings loose at his sides, and tail dragging in the dirt behind him.
“Come on,” she said as she ran her fingers through his mane and caressed his silky ears, “I’ll get a quick shower first and then make you something to eat while you get yours.” By her calculations, of the two of them, he’d done the lion’s share of the work during cleanup. It was only fair she hunt up food for them.
Gregory rumbled happily and leaned into her touch, though she didn’t know if he agreed with her idea or was simply reacting to the physical contact. They trudged up the back steps and crossed the veranda and into the house in a companionable silence.
It wasn’t until they had crossed through the kitchen and into the living room that it occurred to her that they’d done this exact thing after the last Hunt. “You know, in the future, we might want to excuse ourselves the nights the Wild Hunt rides. We never seem to escape it unscathed.”
Beside her, Gregory tilted his head to look up at her, and he started to chuckle. “No, I suppose we don’t, but imagine how much worse the outcome could have been if we weren’t there both times.”
“Hmm,” Lillian debated as she climbed the stairs to the second story. “There’s that silver lining. Guess I’m glad all these aches and pains were gained for a higher purpose.”
It was the thought of hot water, shampoo, and copious amounts of body wash that sustained her to the top of the stairs. She shed her clothes as she crossed the threshold into her bedroom and continued into the bathroom with the determined shuffle of the terminally drained.
Gregory plodded into the bathroom behind her. She’d initially wanted to shower alone so she could scrub off any incriminating evidence that she might have missed with her hasty wash in the pond before she’d smeared herself in the bog slime. But Gregory had proven a fantastic mind reader in the past, and if she tried to chase him from the bathroom now, he might get suspicious.
And a suspicious gargoyle was far too much for her to cross wits with in her present state of brain fog.
IN THE END, LILLIAN had emptied half a bottle of body wash on the two of them before Gregory had stopped crinkling his nose up every time he took a deep breath. She’d finished up first, and then gone in search of something to eat. To her surprise, she’d opened the door to the hall only to bump a tray with her toes. No harm had come to either her toes or the trays, of which there were two, and both piled high with steaming food. A glance up and down the hall showed no hint as of how they’d gotten there, but she’d bet a night’s sleep Gran’s invisible hand was involved, even if she’d not stepped foot within the house herself for hours.
Gregory was still in the shower, so she set the trays on the bedside table and pulled the towel off her head and started to work on the snags in her hair. She’d managed about half the job when the door to the bathroom opened. A moment later, the bed shifted behind her and Gregory took the comb out of her hand. With a gentle nuzzle, he continued the work in silence. He was in one of his touchy-feely moods, but she didn’t mind, taking comfort in his presence. He slowly teased out the tangles with gentleness and patience far greater than her usual efficient brushing.
In a moment of weakness, a part of her wanted him to catch some betraying thought or scent, to discover that they’d crossed a forbidden line because she was terrified that her worst fears might come to pass, and she’d have to face that truth alone.
One hand strayed to her flat belly. Reason returned, and she quickly tied her robe’s sash to make the move look natural. Now was not the time to fall apart or panic, especially when nothing might come of her foolish mistake. Gregory didn’t need yet another thing to worry about. She’d just have to dig deeper and find a bigger backbone.
“Lillian?”
Her stomach plummeted. Had he already discovered her shameful secret?
“Yes?” she asked, proud her voice sounded normal.
“What are you afraid of? I can smell the sudden spike of fear.” A large, muscular tail curved around her waist and tugged gently until she softened her stance and allowed her head to drop back against his chest. “Me?”
Breath fr
oze in her lungs, and she couldn’t answer as her heart did a strange little flip in her chest.
“Is it me you fear?” he asked again.
Hearing uncertainty and dread in his tone, she turned and straddled his lap. Entwining the fingers of one hand with his, she pressed the palm of the other against his chest where she could feel the throb of his heart. Then she raised their joined hands to her own breast and pressed his hand over her heart. “No, never.”
“I would never harm you. Not even when I was fully under Tethys’ enchantments, could she have made me harm you.”
“Shh, I know. It’s not you I fear. It’s the future.” She stroked the tattoo around his throat. “I’ve made so many mistakes and bad choices. I don’t know if I can ever make it right.”
He took her hands and cradled them in his larger one, and then in an elegant, old-world way, he pressed a kiss to the back of each. “We will face this new obstacle as we have always faced challenges, together.”
I dearly hope so.
She hugged him in a fierce embrace.
Gregory must have caught her thought, for he dipped his muzzle down and nuzzled her damp hair for several moments before one large hand came up and started to caress it in long, soothing strokes.
Even after her inner turmoil finally quieted, she continued to hold Gregory in a fierce grip until her arms grew tired, only then did she release him with a sigh and asked, “Are you hungry? Food magically walked to our door while you were still in the shower.”
He gave her a slight nod, and she padded over to where she’d set the two trays.
GREGORY WAS JUST FINISHING off his meal when his gaze took on a distant look, which meant he sensed something or someone was communicating with him. “What is it?” she asked, fearing bad news.
“Your hamadryad,” he rumbled, sounding happy. So perhaps it wasn’t bad news.
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 51